DAmato Announces National Poker Week
Written by Matt W | Sunday, July 5th, 2009
The Poker Players Alliance announced at the 40th Anniversary World Series of Poker that July 19 to 25, 2009 is National Poker Week. PPA Chairman Alphonse D’Amato, a former US Senator from New York, gave a press conference at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. National Poker Week is, according to D’Amato, a way to make it clear to Congress that poker is an important issue for voters and that poker is not likely to go away.
In an interesting pairing for the former Republican Senator, US Representative Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat, also addressed the conference. They were accompanied by PPA board members Greg Raymer and Linda Johnson. Like D’Amato, Representative Berkley favors loosening restrictions on online poker.
National Poker Week is intended to be a wake-up call for Congress to address the desires of over 10 million Americans who play poker online. Six professional poker players will be traveling with 30 of the PPA’s State Directors, and they will be meeting with their Senators and Representatives to discuss legislation which would license and regulate online poker in the United State. H.R. 2267, for example, was introduced by House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and would provide licensing for online gambling as well as consumer protection on the internet.
Also on the agenda is a petition that the PPA plans to deliver to President Obama asking for the President’s support in excluding poker from the games covered by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The petition also requests that President Obama support bills to license and regulate online poker within the United States.
The PPA will be hosting a poker tournament for charity to benefit the USO and the Malone House and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The tournament will be open to wounded servicemen and women as well as members of Congress.
Other activities planned for National Poker Week include a technology demo which will show how technology can be used to prevent underage play and to assure fair play of online poker.
For those who can’t travel to Washington, the PPA will have email campaigns and telephone campaigns to call Congressional offices. The PPA hopes that this will help involve many more poker supporters and get the word out to Congress that there really is a need for legal online poker in the United States.
Professional poker player Howard Lederer will be headed to Washington DC for National Poker Week. Commenting on the need to legalize and regulate online poker in the United States, he said “Protecting Americans’ right to play poker – whether online or around the poker table – is something everyone should support even if you don’t play. Restricting what we can do online in the privacy of our own home is a slippery slope, which is why I am coming to Washington for National Poker Week – to tell my members of Congress to protect my rights,”
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· Written by Matt W · Filed Under Poker News · Comments Off
